The periodic cleaning of data carriers, such as photographic film, audio tapes and the like, is necessary for preventing the build up of impurities which inhibit the clarity and performance of the carrier. Employing brushes to dislodge the dust particles and other impurities is known in the art. Many of the present cleaning devices employing brushes, however, suffer from drawbacks. Rotating the brushes so that the particles are merely swept along the longitudinal direction of the film, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,610, is inefficient because the impurities frequently will simply reposition themselves on a different portion of the film.
To increase the cleaning ability of the device, some cleaners create an air flow across the film surface to vacuum away the impurities after they have been dislodged by the brushes. This, however, requires a separate vacuum source which must be attached to the brushes. Such a system with an external air supply is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,470.576.
Some of the impurities can become electrically charged which makes them difficult to remove with the brushes. To alleviate this problem, prior art cleaning devices use an ionizer or static eliminator in addition to brushes to remove these particles. Such a system again requires additional components that must be added to the cleaning device.
A need exists, therefore, for a film cleaner that is efficient in removing various types of dust particles without requiring the addition of excessive external equipment.